#6 - Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the latest game in the extremely popular Mario Kart series. It was released on the Nintendo Switch, but is a port of the game Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe adds many new things from the original Mario Kart 8. This includes coming with the base Mario Kart 8's DLC for free. On top of that, they revamped the battle mode, added new characters, and gave it a completely new DLC called the Booster Course Pass, doubling the amount of courses in the game. All of these new features on an already really good game has made this become the best selling game for the Nintendo Switch.

Story

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a racing game. It does not have a story. It is all about the gameplay. So I don't know why you are still reading this section. You can go now. The gameplay section is right below this. Um... you really don't have to stay. Wait! If I end this section, you have to go to the next section. Now GO TO THE GAMEPLAY SECTION! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Gameplay

Mario Kart is a racing game. If I haven't already made that obvious, then I'd be concerned about my communication skills. But what makes Mario Kart different from other racing games; items. Items change the entirety of the game. A single lightning shock can change the entirety of a race. Items are pulled a few times per lap, and have different effects from being a simple object that gives you a speed boost to an item that removes everyone else's items, slows them down, and shrinks everyone allowing them to be squished. Items can allow someone who has never played the game before a chance to win. But don't think that this is only a game about luck, as skill is a major part of the game as well. Like most racing games, you want to take tight lines and get as close to the corner as possible, but you can also drift to get mini-turbos, or small speed boosts. There are even some glitches that are now main strategies, such as glider vectoring, soft drifting, and super bouncing. But if you thought that racing was the only thing you could do, you are wrong. There is time trials, where you race around a course as fast as you can without trying to beat anyone else. There is also battle mode where you play in an arena instead of a race course. Depending on the battle mode, the objective changes. Balloon battle is where you use items to attack the other racers to pop their balloons, bob-omb blast is balloon battle, but with only bob-ombs, coin runners is where you collect as many coins as you can, shine thief is where you try to hold onto a shine for as long as you can and try not to let the others steal it from you, and renegade roundup is just cops and robbers. If you want to play with friends and family, you can. This game was designed with multiplayer in mind and allows for local multiplayer, wireless communication, and multiplayer across the internet. Multiplayer is always more fun than single player as you have many more memorable moments. Believe me when I say this, you will be screaming at everyone else for throwing the blue shell when you were about to win.

Aesthetic

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is one of the best looking games on the Nintendo Switch. It has extremely realistic visuals for a Nintendo Switch game and has so many details hidden within the courses. Some courses even have connections to other courses, such as Sunshine Airport and Super Bell Subway showing rides to other courses. There is a major problem with the visuals. Not every course has the best visuals they can have. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe got a DLC 5 years after its release called the Booster Course Pass. This took courses from the mobile game, Mario Kart Tour, and lazily shoved them into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Since they were pretty lazy, they looked awful. Just compare the grass from Toad Circuit and Moo Moo Meadows. As time went on in the Booster Course Pass, the graphics did get slowly better. They never managed to get the fun easter eggs in the course like the base game had, but some of the courses in waves 4 and 6 actually look like they could be part of the base game, like Wii Rainbow Road shown above. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe also has amazing sound design, having a soundtrack made up of almost entirely real instruments. It definitely adds to the amazing immersion they already had with the graphics (before the DLC). All in all, this game has some amazing graphics with an immersive soundtrack that makes you think you are really in the game.

Conclusion

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a great game to have fun with friends and family. It is a simple game to understand, but a complex one to master. Many people have played it (considering it is the best selling Nintendo Switch game) and enjoyed it, and it will remain an all time classic for future generations. That being said, Nintendo has finally revealed a new Mario Kart game after 10 years, and Mario Kart World may end up dethroning this game with it looking like it has amazing course design and an open world, something that a Mario Kart game has never done before. But one thing is for sure, Mario Kart World has some very tough competition.